*
Jenni reached the corridor to the food court and struggled to press her way through the crowd. She was at the back of the throng of people and the smoke was beginning to affect her vision.
Looking back she could see the zombies still dragging people down. But they weren’t taking their time to completely consume their victims anymore. They were taking a few bites, then lunging toward their fleeing prey.
Out of the black smoke, two tiny figures emerged near her. Amy’s daughter banged into her hip and Jenni swept her up into her arms. Then Amy’s son gripped Jenni’s hand. “Where’s your Mom?”
The little boy pointed. The smoke parted as Jenni looked back. Amy struggling with a zombie that had grabbed hold of her from behind. Her elbow was up under its chin and she was trying to push it back away from her throat. Her eight-year-old daughter, Margie, was still holding onto her mother’s shirt.
“Margie, run!” Amy screamed at her daughter, but the little girl kept held on. “Oh, my God,” Jenni gasped, unsure of what to do. The kids holding on to her were sobbing for their mother.
As the other zombies neared, Amy made a choice. She turned, grabbed her daughter, and threw her toward the Jenni.
“Run, Margie run! Go with Jenni!” Amy screamed, then the zombies dragged her down.
Jenni screamed in horror, then surged forward, reaching for Margie. She managed to grab the girl’s hair and yank her back away from the zombies. The little girl was shrieking. Clutching Amy’s children to her, Jenni pressed forward into the crowd. She fought harder, pushing her way through the crowd with renewed vigor.
*
Kevin and Valerie fell back as the zombies continued to swarm the Left Corridor. They were fighting with six other soldiers, but overwhelming numbers of zombies were filling the mall. Kevin ordered them to fall back to a candy kiosk just as the first running zombies appeared. Literally racing past the barricaded soldiers, they dove into the last of the fleeing people from the Left Corridor and began tearing them apart right in front of the doors to the parking lot.
Thomas began firing at them and Kevin motioned for the soldiers to run into the corridor that lead to the food court.
“We’ll exit through the Right Corridor!”
More sprinting zombies appeared.
The soldiers turned and ran.
The only thing that saved them was that the new zombies, ravenously hungry, dove onto the already dying victims to feast.
*
Greta swung her helicopter low for the third time, trying to blow the zombies off their feet as they struggled to get into the mall. Cursing that her helicopter was for rescue and transport only, she wished she had a nice bomb or machine gun.
Below her, the zombies stumbled and fell beneath the wash of the helicopters. But they just kept coming.
*
Travis reached the food court and its thundering waterfall just as Kevin and his men did.
“We have to go out the Right Corridor,” Kevin ordered.
“It’s blocked!” Travis exclaimed in frustration.
“What?”
“We couldn’t get out!”
The two men stared at each other in shock, then looked back and forth. Smoke was wafting in from the Right Corridor.
“Fuck, we’re trapped, ” Valerie exclaimed.
*
Jenni and the children were some of the last people to escape the Right Corridor. The fire finally overcame the zombies and began to spread along the walls. It was a food kiosk that finally saved those fleeing. The fire hit it and the oils used to make donuts ignited. The fireball flattened zombies and set them on fire. The flames burned hot and fierce, pushing back the zombies and stopping their pursuit of the people escaping into the food court.
2. Fall to Grace
“Where the hell do we go?”
Travis’ question hung in the air as Kevin’s eyes strayed to the maintenance stairway that snaked up the side of the building toward the skylight overhead. Pointing to metal stairway, Kevin said, “We go up.”
“To the roof?”
“A fire escape goes down to the parking lot from the roof,” Kevin answered. “It’s the only way out now.”
“Then we don’t have a choice,” Katie said. “They’ll be here soon.”
“Go! Move!” Valerie started to shout, motioning people to the staircase. “Bette, open that door up there,” Kevin ordered a blond soldier nearby.
With a nod, Bette ran up before the people, climbing three stories to the door at the very top.
Thomas ran ahead of her and swung open the gate at the bottom. The jumble of old, young, men, women, and children poured up the stairs.
Valerie tossed chairs and tables into the corridor leading to the Left Corridor. The zombies tended to not pay attention to anything but their victims and were easily tripped. Thomas joined her as more and more people lined up to ascend the stairs. “Katie, let’s go,” Travis said firmly, pulling her toward the stairs.
“But Jenni,” Katie protested. “We need to find her!” Travis turned to his wife and she could see the anguish in his eyes. “Katie, I love you and you know I care about Jenni, but we need to get out of here now! Think of the baby.”
Katie nodded and, tears streaming down her face, she let him guide her into line. “Target the fast zombies first,” Kevin ordered as the five soldiers took up position, looking down the corridor. It was strewn with chairs, tables, and potted plants.
“Where the fuck did the fast ones come from?” Thomas yelled angrily. “They all slowed down. Why are they fast again?”
“They’re the fresh ones,” Kevin answered grimly.
“Oh, shit,” Thomas said in an agonized tone.
Kevin didn’t even want to think of how many fresh zombies there might be.
The people fleeing the Right Corridor were down to a trickle. Some had been overcome by the smoke or badly burned by the explosion. Finally the last survivors stumbled out of the smoke. It was Jenni with the children. Half-carrying and half pulling the children, she saw the line of people ascending the metal staircase crawling up the wall and hurried toward it.
The first of the running zombies appeared from the Left Corridor. Running at full speed, they howled with hunger. “Fire!”
The soldiers opened fire, their bullets slicing through the air to impact with the heads of the runners. The zombies were eliminated one by one, several of them managing to make it close enough to trip over the tables and chairs. But they, too, were cut down.
“Running low on ammo,” Valerie said to Kevin.
Kevin looked up to see that the majority of the people were now on the stairs. He caught sight of Jenni with three small children stumbling into the last part of the line.
“We keep them covered until they are up the stairs,” Kevin instructed in a somber tone.
The soldiers all grimly nodded and looked back down the corridor. The stumbling, slow dead were moving in one great wave toward them.
“Watch for the fast ones,” Kevin instructed.